Fantastic Four

I went to see Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer tonight. Superior to its predecessor in about every way imaginable, this was a joy to watch. Jessica Alba is still a very bad choice for Sue Storm, but there were a couple of spots where she was okay, namely when she was acting like Max from Dark Angel. Sue Storm is a blonde white female with blue eyes. The contacts they used to make her eyes blue in the movie were rather distracting. The Silver Surfer was way cool, as cool in a silvery shimmery kind of way as Johnny Storm is in a fiery kind of way. Yes, Chris Evans rocked again as the Human Torch.

This is Crazy!!!!

Check out this little kid doing DDR (Dance Dance Revolution). I think I might break my leg...

Three Articles

I read three articles on MSNBC that really got me going this morning.

• Stay-At-Home Dads

  What do you know: men are found to be somewhat competent at something women normally do, even though the moms are reluctant to admit it. Equality goes both ways. Women, please remember this: You get to choose one and only one of these options: 1) What needs to be done, or 2) How to do it. Do you like to be nagged or nitpicked at every turn? Even if you call it "helping", it's still interpreted as nagging, and we men do not appreciate it. I do like how the article tells us that we need both moms and dads in raising the children. Men are not irrelevant and unneeded (though some act in ways that lead one to think so).

  
  
• Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome

  Bob Woodward, please, do a report on this: Iraq war veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and their not receiving proper—or receiving incorrect— care. How dare we as a country ask these men and women to serve our country and then slap them down because they're just not "tough enough". What is tough enough? Could these same paper pushers serve even one week and not be changed by what they had seen or done?
  

• Nifong disbarred

  At long last, justice is finally served in the Duke non-rape-or-even-attack case. Pretty early on, it was clearly evident to even a layman that there was no evidence against the accused lacrosse players, and that one even had an alibi. (It seems only the contingent that believes that accusation = prosecution felt Nifong was correct in his now clearly-shown political pandering.) Even now, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, he is still trying to convict those boys with his words (check out the end of the article about "getting out of there quickly"). Nifong wanted to make a name for himself. He has managed to do so. It only cost the reputations of three boys and the integrity of an entire state's judicial system to do so.

  
  

The past two episodes of Bones I've watched have also caused me to think about the way we treat our children and live our lives. I'll write about that at some point. Maybe.

Silly lawsuits, stop clogging up our justice system

One of the key things about my personality that I found out many years ago is that I have a very strong sense of justice. Things can be apparent to you without you realizing what it is at a conscious level, but when expressed to you, it suddenly makes sense, and you think, "Oh, yeah!! That makes so much sense."

This hasn't translated to me being some social crusader or even being particularly outspoken about bad things happening. Possibly, there's so much injustice that I wonder what I could possibly do, or who would listen to me (which is a common theme in other areas of my life).

Anyway, I'm against frivolous law suits, especially when caused by one's own stupidity or by some wrong-headed idea that bad things automatically incur monetary recompense from somebody (or downright fraud, like the people who boarded a bus involved in an accident after the accident and then claimed injuries from said accident).

There is a web site that brings such cases to light, and you've probably heard of the yearly awards for the most egregious examples of these lawsuits, the True Stella Awards. Here's a link to the "winners" for 2006: True Stella Awards 2006. Enjoy reading!

A funny

I found this quite humorous...